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Monday, August 8, 2016

Federal Regulators Make It Pretty Simple: You Want No Part of Incentive Based Wellness Programs

Unless your business can hire a law firm to wade through and ultimately defend you on the competing federal laws and EEOC, ADA and GINA regulatory proclamations, wellness programs that do any more than make free information available clearly aren't worth the legal risk.

Oh, and let us not forget that when these programs are studied by folks who don't want to sell them to you their efficacy is dubious at best. Here, here and here.

New workplace wellness regulations that address participation incentive limits under disability and genetic anti-discrimination laws are inconsistent with overlapping federal laws, so employers must scrutinize their programs closely to ensure compliance.

Agency officials examined the scope of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's 2016 regulations under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act during a July 14 webinar sponsored by the American Bar Association.

They also described how those rules interact with 2013 regulations issued by the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury that implement the nondiscrimination provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, as amended by the Affordable Care Act. ...